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THE PHILOSOPHY OF TANTRA
The loftiest dictum pronounced by the sages and seers of Upnishadic and Vedic era was “Aham Brahmasmi”. I am that. Their search was within; they explored the vast dimensions that constitute the inner life. Mentally they dissected the body and discovered its subtle essence to be the senses.
Through meditation on the senses they discovered the corridors and avenues of the mind. By reflecting on the mind they realized the potential energy that was dormant within. By awakening that energy they discovered conscious- ness and by uniting the inherent energy with the individual consciousness they realized that they were indeed intimately connected to and a part of the cosamic conscious -ness. This was realized by the tantrics a long time ago, even before the Vedic era. The entire spectrum of Vedic and tantric philosophy is based on this realization, weather Shaivism, Vaishnavism or Shaktism, the subject is exploring the substance that man is composed of.
Several thousand years later, the unified field theory which physicist talk about uncannily points in the same direction. According to this theory, the entire creation is one composite whole and all of life whether animate or inanimate, manifest or unmanifest, is intimately connected. In other words, whatever you think, feel, say or do spreads like ripples to unending space, mixing, merging and colliding with ripples from other sources.
This is a very dynamic idea, which lends universality to each and every human being and gives life an importance and status that goes far beyond one’s imagination and expectation. Through the dark ages of history, the average man has found himself severely limited whenever he has tried to delve into areas of life that extend beyond what the senses can see, hear, taste, touch and smell. The range of human perception is limited to this dimension.
Play of consciousness and the player is Shiva, the ultimate reality within. The main aim of Tantra is to purify the consciousness and extend it to manifest the light divine within. Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh says that you don’t have to bring the light from outside, work hard and purify yourself, the light will unfold from within.
Tantra prescribes many untold practices, helping to achieve the summit. In Kularnava Tantra, we have a number of matrices within our mind. The matrices which are the significance of our past work i.e. “Sanskaras”.
If we solve or simplify these matrices with the help of austere practices or Sadhanas depicted in the ancient texts of Tantra then we will escape from this gross being and sit on a subliminal state of supreme consciousness.
According to Tantra, the universal consciousness descends towards manifestation as individual consciousness assuming four states, known as buddhi, chitta, ahamkra and mahas. Buddhi represents the higher intellect with its activity of Sankalpa and vikalpa or thought and counter thought, chitta, or memory, is the storehouse of past actions in the form of Sanskaras or archetypes. Ahamkara or ego is the motion of self-existence, conditioned by the above three.
This is the arc of avaroha or the descent of the dynamic universal consciousness into human life. It is only at the human stage of evolution that unmesha or aroha, the ascent towards higher life is possible. Inner realization dawns when manas, buddhi, chitta and ahamkara are dissolved into universal consciousness through the medium of Shakti or energy.
This is the highest yajna or sacrifice man can offer. The supramental state which Sri Aurobindo the twentieth century yogi, talked about. Often referred to also points in this direction.
In the tradition of modern tantric ascetics Gopinath Kaviraj says that the practice of Tantra is a way of life. Tantra pervades all of us. Here we perform Yoga of different physical postures of meditative sittings are of Tantric cults. Renowned tantric practitioner and writer M.P. Pandit justifies that without Tantra no practice of Yoga is helpful. We do not know but actually Tantra merges in our daily life. It reaches at its heights in our ancient texts describing the different modes of application but simply it is a discipline of our life and awakening the power which is dormant within.
 Yatendra Dutt Amoli
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